


Baby, It's Cold Outside

by theangelanddean



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, Clumsy Castiel, Destiel Christmas Minibang 2015, First Meetings, Fluff, Grumpy Castiel, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Prompt: Scarfs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 06:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5407007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theangelanddean/pseuds/theangelanddean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life for Castiel isn't like a movie. He's constantly late for class. His Professor enjoys giving him hell. Plus, the weather in Seattle is getting colder and colder. But with a gust of wind, his life is changed when he gets hit in the face with a lost scarf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby, It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the Destiel Christmas Minibang. My prompt was scarf and I hope I did justice to it. The beautiful artwork is done by [@artsiel](http://artsiel.tumblr.com/).

The sun shines brightly over the little patch of frost-covered grass. Winter in Seattle has been odd for the past few years. One day it would be raining but never cold enough for it to snow and the next, the sun would be out and the temperature drops below to the negatives. It’s one of those cold days today and it is definitely something Castiel did not need.

The problem wasn’t winter the problem was the cold. On top of that, when the crispy wind hit his face it would make sure his nose would be red for the rest of the day. Scowling at the metal bike in front of him, he tightens his grip on his backpack and gets on. Rain or shine—or in this case, warmth or cold—he needs to go to class.

The bike ride from his dorm to Bagley Hall was slower than usual. First, some guy almost runs into him. Second, the bike rack was almost full. Running up the stairs of the building, a gush of cold wind hits Castiel and a soft cloth lands on his face. He grabs the material and identifies it as a scarf. A quick look around him, he doesn’t see the owner of the scarf anywhere near him. Not wanting to be late, he runs into the building, with the mysterious scarf.

***

The clock on the hallway wall reads 8:22 and Castiel is three minutes away from being late to class. The elevator closes just as he reaches it, leaving him behind. Gripping the scarf tight, he turns to the stairs and embarks on the journey of three stories.

His thighs start burning by the second floor and he swears through his teeth. He decides to blame this entire situation on the stupid scarf and whoever owns it. On the last stretch of stairs, he sprints straight into the classroom with 20 seconds to spare. Thankfully, Gadreel had a saved him a seat.

“That was a close one.” Gadreel raises his eyebrows.

“Don’t even ask.” Castiel grumbles as he plops down on to the chair.

The professor gets up and begins his lecture about organic chemistry. Castiel looks down at the scarf in his hands and properly looks at it. It is a soft flannel material, with forest green and baby blue plaid. He examines it deeper, hoping to find some kind of identity marker. But the only thing he found was a neat stitch with the initials _D.W._.

“Whose is that?” Gadreel whispers under his breath.

Castiel shrugs, “Don’t know. The wind brought it to me.”

“How poetic.” He sniggers. “Maybe it’s a sign.”

“Shut up—“

“Novak!” Professor Luke yells. Castiel jumps at the sound and flushes red.

“Yes, Professor?”

“With all that conversation, it seems like you know the answer to this question.” The professor sneers.

Castiel looks at the board and gulps the lump down his throat. “I…um…don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” He writes down something on his clipboard. “That’s unfortunate.”

Castiel slides down his chair, hiding his face from the pity stares from his fellow classmates. Weirdly enough, he finds comfort in the scarf.

***

“Samandriel!” Castiel exclaims. His roommate is still in bed and will definitely miss his midterm if he doesn’t get up.

“Huh?” The shaggy-haired boy groans from his bunk. “Shit.”

“Yeah.” Castiel rolls his eyes. “You might want to sprint.”

He watches him jump off his bed and run out the door with his bag. Shaking his head, Castiel drops his own bag next to his chair and strips off his own scarf and jacket. Dropping his white knit scarf on his desk, he sits down with the lost one and pulls out his laptop.

Searching the university website for lost and found places, he realizes there was no way the owner of this scarf would never find this. So he decides to write a post on Facebook, hoping someone knew a person who lost their belongings. With that, he starts his assigned homework.

Reaching for his cup of coffee, he accidently knocks the mug over and spreads the contents all over his desk. In efforts to save the plaid scarf, he forgets about his own and the coffee seeps through the white wool, turning it brown.

“Fuck.” Castiel swears. He hangs the other scarf on his bed and grabs his hand towel and wipes up the mess.

“Why me?” He whines to himself. He drops both the towel and his scarf in the laundry hamper and grabs a few coins. Maybe he just needs a break, and doing the laundry will, hopefully, make everything better.

Walking to the shared laundry room, Castiel crashes into something—no, someone and drops his hamper. He blinks up in surprise as he meets a face that was probably made by the Gods. Freckles dusted over his nose and cheeks, eyes that are moss green with dots of gold shinning, and lips—so full and pink.

“Shit. Sorry.” He says and Castiel swears on the inside. Not only does he look like a ray of sunshine, he has a deep honey-like voice.

“It’s…” Castiel croaks. “It’s okay.”

Leaning down to pick up the laundry, he sees the man lean down and help him. Their hands brush with every movement and electricity shoots up Castiel’s arm.

“Dean!” A gruff voice down the hall way yells out.

“Just a sec, Benny.” The man—Dean—helps Castiel up with the laundry basket. “Sorry, about this, again.”

“It’s okay.” Castiel whispers as he watches Dean walk down the hallway to ‘Benny’.

***

The next day, Castiel wakes up late again. This time it wasn’t his fault it was the alarm’s fault. The power conveniently went out because of the windstorm that night. Castiel rummages through the dorm, getting ready as fast as he could. When he reaches into his washed laundry, he realizes that his scarf is ruined. The white material was still brown with the coffee stain and the yarn was all over the place. There is no way the scarf—if you could even call it that—would keep him warm.

“What the hell happened to that?” Samandriel mumbles from his bunk.

“The dryer decided to get in a fight with it and won.” Castiel groans, throwing the thing into the trash. “I’m going to freeze out there.”

“Why don’t you use your new scarf?” His roommate yawns.

“What new…” Castiel glances at the plaid scarf hanging off his bed. “Oh…”

He gingerly takes the cloth and traces the _D.W._ Shrugging and realizing that it wouldn’t hurt to wear it. He slides the soft material around his neck and gets a whiff of the musk. It smells like cinnamon, lightly like gasoline, and wet wood. Shaking himself out of his trance, he picks up his backpack and runs out the door.

***

Thankfully, the bike rack that was closest to the building had one last stop open. With everything locked and secure, Castiel jogs down the pathway, hoping he wouldn’t be late to lab. Professor Luke will definitely not make it easy for him. Castiel’s mind is occupied with reviewing what they need to do for lab when he, yet again, crashing into someone.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Castiel gasps, holding onto the person's arms. When he finally looks up, he meets familiar green eyes.

“We have got to stop meeting like this.” Dean chuckles.

“I…um…” Castiel is speechless.

Dean scrunches his eyebrows while looking at the scarf around Castiel’s neck. He picks up the end of the scarf and glances at the stitching.

“This is mine?” He sounds confused.

“Oh!” Castiel flushes and moves to take off the scarf. “It flew into my face yesterday morning. I didn’t mean to wear it; my scarf had a fight with the dryer.”

Dean laughs, “Let me guess, your scarf lost?”

“Yeah…” Castiel removes the scarf and holds it out to Dean. “Um…here you go.”

“Actually…” Dean grabs the cloth and places it around Castiel’s neck. “You look cold.” He takes his hat off, spiking up his light brown hair, and places it over Castiel’s head. “Take this too.”

“But—” Castiel starts.

“You can give them back when we go for coffee later?” Dean asks, sounding unsure.

Castiel blushes and places his hands in his pockets. “That would be nice.”

“Great!” Dean’s face lights up. “Anyway, I’m Dean Winchester.”

“Castiel Novak.”

“Well, Cas, It’s cold outside.” Dean smirks, tracing a finger over Castiel’s red nose. “Meet me at the coffee shop near the dorms at around 12:30?”

“Yeah. I’m free.” Castiel smiles up at him.

They stand there, staring at each other with faint smiles for a few moments until Castiel remembers his reason for being in a hurry.

“I have lab!” He exclaims. “I’ll see you later!”

He runs off to the building, but not before taking a glance back at Dean, who was smiling fondly back at him.

***

_Five Years Later_

“Ca-as-s” Dean whines and grabs and pulls the covers off of the semi-naked body of Castiel.

“No.” Castiel gruffly says. Pulling in his knees to his chest, he tries to get warm again.

“C’mon! It’s Christmas morning!” Dean pulls at Castiel’s feet. “Santa gave us presents!”

“Dean, you’re 26 years old.” He rolls his eyes at his boyfriend.

“But a child at heart.” Dean climbs on top of Castiel. “Please, get up.” He places a quick kiss on his lips. “Please?”

“Ugh. Fine.” Castiel groans in defeat.

“Great!” Dean grins and jumps off the bed running off to the living room.

Slowly, Castiel wraps himself up in the blanket and steps over the discarded clothing from last night. Shuffling after Dean, he plops himself down next to the cheap small tree they got last minute. He looks at the decorations they placed and smiles inwardly. The ornaments were made from Dean’s beer caps and Cas’s tea bags. And on top, instead of a typical topper, Dean decides to place a picture of Castiel, saying that he was the only angel he knew.

Castiel turns his gaze to Dean, and sees that he has box wrapped with brown paper and a light blue ribbon. His face had a nervous smile as his shoved the present into Castiel’s arms.

“Open it.” Dean urges.

“I am, calm your horses.” Castiel yawns, while slowly taking the ribbon off the box. “It’s way to early in the morning.”

“It’s 7:00.” Dean rolls his eyes. “I wanted to wake you up at 4:00.”

Castiel horrifically glances at Dean, “I’ll kill you if you ever wake me up at four-fucking-AM”

“Got it.” Dean chuckles, holding his hands up in surrender. “Just open it.”

Castiel rips off the brown paper and opens the cardboard box. Inside he sees a scarf, wait, the scarf that led him to meet Dean. His face softens as he tenderly picks it up, feeling the soft flannel in his hands. He traces a line of blue all the way to where Dean’s initials had been stitched in. But there was something different. Next to the _D.W._ , there was a rough inexperienced stitch that spelled out _\+ C.W._ Gasping, Castiel looks up at Dean to see him on his knees with a white box that carried a beautiful platinum ring. Castiel gulps and tears brim his eyes as Dean starts talking.

“Castiel Novak, my Cas, We’ve known each other for five long years and honestly I fall deeper in love with your every single day.” Dean takes a shaky breath. “I swear, I am so glad that my scarf found you, turning it into the best wingman I’ve ever had.”

Castiel snorts a laugh, making Dean smile.

“So, I really hope asking Ellen to help me stitching won’t go to waste, so Cas, will you—“ Dean gets interrupted by a pair of lips.

Castiel leaves the blanket behind, as he hoists himself on to Dean’s lap and wraps his own arms around his boyfriend’s neck, enthusiastically kissing him. Dean immediately grabs his bare waist with his hand that doesn’t hold the engagement ring. Breaking the kiss, they both smile at each other as Dean taps his own nose with Cas’s.

“Marry me?” Dean finishes his proposal with a blissed sigh.

“Of course.” Castiel accepts wholeheartedly.

Dean grabs Castiel’s hand and slides on the ring then kissing the skin around it. Admiring the ring in contrast to his tan skin, Castiel is startled to the feeling of the scarf being wrapped around his neck.

“Baby, it’s cold outside.” Dean grins and leans in, giving Castiel a chaste peck on his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](http://heavenlycas.co.vu/) || [Twitter](https://twitter.com/heavenlyish)


End file.
